Still Falling ON PURPOSE
Trays slammed down and chairs screeched across tile. Lunch at Highschool A, steam from the serving line mixing with detergent and too many voices at once. Alex had the transfer table claimed already, Morris tearing open a ketchup packet, Joshua halfway through whatever story he'd started before Val cleared the queue.
Val dropped his tray across from them and slid into the empty chair. Grade 10 had put the four of them in the same building; the same lunch block had put them back at the same plastic surface.
"Fraser's essay's due first thing next week," Morris said around a mouthful of fries. "I left the rubric in my locker again."
Alex snorted. "You left the rubric, the draft, and your dignity in that locker."
"Hey." Val leaned in. "Blue folder. I saw it when you grabbed your gym shirt the other day, left pocket, behind the lunch bag."
Morris's shoulders dropped half an inch. "You're a lifesaver."
Homework and due dates moved around the table after that, who had math third period, which teacher was worth dreading. Alex and Val kept landing on the same primary-school names: Mr. Kwan who never spelled anything right, the kid everyone called Pickle until tenth grade. Morris asked what Pickle was doing now; Joshua listened and threw in a question when he had one.
Alex landed a joke about Kwan marking "definately" wrong on a word he'd spelled the same way on the board. Val laughed loud enough that a kid at the next table looked over, and kept his fork moving instead of scanning the room for an excuse to leave.
"History worksheet," Joshua said. "The one about the trade routes. Is that this week or next?"
"This week," Val said. "Section four. Fraser wants the map labeled, not just sketched."
Joshua nodded and went back to his rice. Morris flipped open his binder to check.
Dawn, Mei, and Xian had a table within shouting distance, Mei loud about something, Xian quieter beside her. They wandered over with trays still in hand.
"Still breathing?" Mei asked.
"Sore," Val said. "Last weekend's floor work was long."
Xian's mouth twitched. "Long floor for some of us."
Dawn bumped his shoulder with her tray edge. "She'll get it." She said it to Mei as much as to him, then grinned at Alex. "Hey. Don't let him skip homework for your stories."
"We're educating him," Alex said.
Val shifted his chair to make room. When the three of them drifted back to their seats, Alex, Morris, and Joshua were still in the same row he'd started lunch with.
James's lunch crowd moved through on their usual circuit, James up front, Karen and Sel with Emily, the rest filling in behind. Someone called Val's name; he lifted his chin from his tray and said hello without standing. Alex kept eating. Morris asked about the trade-route map. Val answered while the knot passed on toward the far tables.
Past the serving line, Mina's corner sat wrong in his peripheral vision. She was folded over her tray, shoulders tight, eyes on nothing. John leaned in close, talking low. Val looked back at his own plastic plate and tore his roll in half.
The bell scraped the room toward fifth period. Val stacked his tray, caught up with Alex, Morris, and Joshua at the doors, and walked the hallway with them when the crowd split.